Police Arrest Suspects In Las Cruces Nightclub Slashing
Police arrested two men they say stabbed a former NMSU basketball player with a broken bottle July 30 at Graham’s Central Station nightclub in Las Cruces.
Police said 23-year-old Nicholas Vallejo and 25-year-old Gary Ray Macias attacked New Mexico State University player Makhtar “Pape” Diop inside the club after he told them not to bother the woman with whom he was dancing. That’s when police said Macias signaled Vallejo, who broke a bottle in Diop’s face, and the two began beating him. Police said Diop tried to defend himself when Macias hit him with another bottle and Vallejos slashed his abdomen several times with broken glass.
Police said flying shards of glass from a broken bottle struck the left eye of the 31-year-old woman, causing a serious injury. An officer found Diop somewhere in the east side of the parking lot outside the club, with his shirt wrapped around his severely bleeding stomach.
Diop told police that he was just having a good time on the dance floor when he was attacked and stabbed.
“The young man who was stabbed was dancing with maybe a woman that the suspect didn’t want him dancing with,” Las Cruces Police Department spokesman Dan Trujillo said a couple of days after the incident.
Diop and the 31-year-old woman were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso. Diop has undergone multiple surgeries but is expected to recover, Trujillo said.
Police said witnesses saw Vallejos and Macias exit the bar and leave in a white Ford Explorer. Police located the vehicle on Cambridge Drive, and witnesses identified Vallejos and Macias as the suspects.
Vallejos, of the 1200 block of Monte Vista Avenue, was arrested Thursday by U.S. marshals on suspicion of three counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy. Macias, 25, of the 2100 block of Desert Drive, was arrested by Las Cruces Police on Wednesday on suspicion of two counts of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and conspiracy.
The two were booked into the Dona Ana County Detention Facility, with cash bonds set at $30,000 for Vallejos and $25,000 for Macias.
Diop had played for the Aggies since 2008. He is not listed in this year’s roster.
